Dear PM, Jammu and Kashmir is slipping away

There is not one leader left in Kashmir who loves India, Indian Constitution and Indian Army

Things in the border State of Jammu and Kashmir are assuming alarming proportions with each passing moment. Kashmir, the trouble spot and den of subversive and anti-Other activities since 1339, has almost slipped away. It became a one-community region in January 1990, when the abandoned and hapless miniscule minority of Hindus migrated from Kashmir wholesale to Jammu to escape physical liquidation and save honour, dignity, religion and culture they held very dear. New Delhi ditched them to appease the subversives in the Valley.  There is not one leader left in Kashmir who loves India, Indian Constitution and Indian Army. All despise them and without mincing words. This is the stark reality. Those who question it only indulge in an exercise of self-deception. But this has been happening since 1947 when Maharaja Hari Singh acceded his state to the Indian Dominion as per the constitutional law on the subject recommended by the Indian Independence Act of 1947. Hence, what is happening in Kashmir is quite understandable.

The first step that he needs to take to limit Jihad to the Valley is to separate Jammu and Ladakh from Kashmir, impose Governor Rule

The PDP, the NC and the Congress, which are one-community and essentially Kashmir-based parties, are exploiting to the hilt the Jammu and Kashmir Legislature, the New Delhi’s ambivalence and weak-kneed policies, the Indian taxpayers’ money, local and sections of national media, both print and electronic, and the Indian political class’ unstinted support to subvert the state both from within and outside in a most brazen manner. The situation has climaxed to the point that one can even shout Pakistan Zindabad slogan on the floor of the Assembly and the Speaker has to expunge his own remarks on the Rohingya involvement in the terror attack on the Sunjuwan Army camp within the Jammu city to honour the sentiments of the PDP, the Congress, the NC, the CPI-M and other MLAs from Kashmir. It is unprecedented, mind-boggling and highly disturbing.

 It has become extremely difficult to distinguish between the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) coalition and the combined opposition National Conference (NC) and the Congress. The PDP, the NC and the Congress are speaking in one language and miss no opportunity to undermine the institution of Indian State and denigrate the institution of the army in their determined bid to identify themselves with the separatist view and separatist constituency in the terrorist-infested Kashmir Valley. They boldly and shamelessly tell New Delhi that Pakistan is a factor in Jammu and Kashmir situation and Islamabad can’t be wished away. To be more precise, the PDP, the NC and the Congress have virtually become the mouthpieces of Pakistan and Pakistan-aided, abetted, guided, controlled and indoctrinated separatists in Kashmir and the radicalized Kashmiri society.

Shockingly, the BJP has thrown out its ideology lock, stock and barrel to fulfil its insatiable lust for power and pelf. It is in the government just in name. It is the PDP which has been running the show, dictating terms to the BJP and pushing forward its separatist agenda meticulously and at an alarming speed. The BJP’s only role is to follow its diktats and implements the divisive and anti-Jammu and anti-Ladakh policies and programmes of the PDP. It has on umpteen occasions publicly hailed Mufti Sayeed as a visionary and great statesman and completely forgotten Syama Prasad Mookerjee and Pandit Deendayal Upadhyay, a patriot of patriots.  It now openly supports the divisive Articles 35-A and 370 to keep Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and separatists in Kashmir in good humour and willfully avoids confrontation to save the government. The BJP does sometimes murmur but only to mislead and hoodwink its constituency. The point is that the PDP is conducting itself as if it is a one-party rule in the state and the BJP just its B-team or whatever one may call it. (The PDP has 27 MLAs and the BJP+28.)

Worse still, the PDP is getting fullest cooperation both from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP high command. They do not get offended even when Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti says in Delhi that there will not be one person in Jammu and Kashmir to give a shoulder to national tri-colour if Article 370 and 35-A were even slightly tinkered with by the BJP and New Delhi. (Is national tri-colour dead, which needs a shoulder?) They do not get offended even when she quotes or misquotes Defence Minister of India Nirmala Sitharaman on the floor of the Assembly to defend the nasty FIR against Major Aditya and nine other soldiers and asserts and reasserts that the FIR against them would be taken to its logical conclusion. Also, they do not get even slightly perturbed when on the same day and on the same issue Mehbooba Mufti contradicts Nirmala Sitharaman’s Jammu statement that Pakistan will have to pay a price for its Jammu’s Sunjuwan misadventure and she would misuse the floor of the assembly to ask Prime Minister Narendra Modi to talk to Pakistan if he wanted peace in the state.

The case in point is the terror attack on Sunjuwan Army Camp, which left 6 soldiers martyred and father of a soldier and three terrorists dead. Besides, the Prime Minister and the BJP high command would neither question the Mehbooba Mufti’s communal stand on the Rohingya intruders and nor would they take cognizance of the ongoing demographic invasion of Jammu. She says the deportation of Rohingyas is not appropriate and Hindu boys and girls are migrating from Jammu because of the out-and-out pro-Kashmir employment and admission policies.

The fact of the matter is that the Prime Minister and the BJP high command have given a veto power to Mehbooba Mufti. The results: National security and the country’s sovereignty is under grave threat; an extreme sense of insecurity has gripped the nationalist constituency in the state; the people of Jammu and Ladakh chaffing and seething with anger; over 9,000 dreaded stone pelters (overground workers of separatists) granted amnesty; the Army at the receiving end; number of killings of army personnel and civilians increasing manifold; and Pakistan and dreaded terrorists feeling emboldened than ever before.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has to come out of election mode and act and act very fast taking into consideration the fact that Jammu and Kashmir State is strategically very vital. He must remember that if Jammu and Kashmir falls, India will also collapse in no time like a house of cards collapses in no time. He has no time left. The nation wants him to act and act now and right away. The first step that he needs to take to limit Jihad to the Valley is to separate Jammu and Ladakh from Kashmir, impose Governor’s Rule, hand over the Valley to Army for at least five years and tell the international community that the problem in Kashmir is 100 percent religious, and not political and economic.

Note:

1. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.

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Hari Om

Hari Om is former Dean, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Jammu.

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